Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at Southampton Hospital, New York. Her father is a Wall Street stockbroker everyone calls "Black Jack." Her mother is a socialite of Irish descent. She attends Vassar, studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, and graduates from George Washington University with a degree in French literature. Works as an "Inquiring Camera Girl" for the Washington Times-Herald.

Marries Congressman John F. Kennedy in Newport, Rhode Island. She met him at a dinner party in 1952. Over 800 guests attend. They have four children. Two die in infancy. One, Patrick, lives 39 hours.

Becomes First Lady at 31. Leads a nationally televised restoration of the White House that 56 million Americans watch. Speaks French with de Gaulle, Spanish with Latin American leaders. Creates the "Jackie Look." Time names her Woman of the Year in 1962. JFK tells the press in Paris: "I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to France."

Dallas. The motorcade through Dealey Plaza. She's sitting next to him in the open car. She crawls onto the trunk of the limousine in the seconds after the shots. She refuses to change out of her blood-stained pink Chanel suit for the swearing-in of LBJ. "Let them see what they've done," she says.

Marries Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis on his private island of Skorpios. She is 39. He is 62. The American public is shocked. She reportedly received a prenuptial settlement of $3 million plus $150,000 per year. When Onassis dies in 1975, she negotiates a $26 million settlement from his daughter.

Dies of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in her Manhattan apartment at 64. She'd spent her final 19 years as a book editor at Viking Press and then Doubleday. Buried at Arlington National Cemetery beside JFK and two of their children. She remains one of the most recognized First Ladies in American history.